FAQ & Glossary

Fifty Shades

We’ve used this language to describe the extent of variety and shade within gender identity and expression. Whilst ‘sex’ might be limited to a narrower palette, ‘gender’ is vastly more varied in shade and hue. We understand that for some the association with the Fifty Shades book and film franchise presents issues around its depiction of BDSM, however, we’ve been inspired by iO Tillet Wright’s similar usage around “Fifty Shades of Gay“, and our desire to publish collections of podcasts and chapters in clusters of 50. There have also been books titled, “Fifty Shades of Gay” and “Fifty Shades of Feminism”, in the latter of which 50 women explored what the F-word meant to them today as an “antidote to the prevailing climate“.

Gender

Either of the two sexes (male and female), especially when considered with reference to social and cultural differences rather than biological ones. The term is also used more broadly to denote a range of identities that do not correspond to established ideas of male and female.

‘a condition that affects people of both genders’‘someone of the opposite gender’‘everyone always asks which gender I identify as’

Logo / X Chromosome

Our logo is based on a zoomed-in stylised version of the X chromosome, so called because of an X factor, not directly its shape. All chromosomes are somewhat X-shaped blobs. The stages of discovery and influence of X and Y (and SRY) in sex determination have taken place only recently in 1905, 1959, and 1990.